Let's Go Steal a Dungeon (MotBM IC/Campaign Log)

Chanterelle accepts both cloaks and smiles gratefully, catching Lyriae's eye for a second or two. She arranges Lyriae's smaller cloak into a kind of improvised kilt and dons Stella's in a more conventional fashion, becoming, if not fit for polite society, at least somewhat warmer. "These will serve, believe me. It has been too long since I could rely on kindness."

 

"Only as long as the moonlight...!" Sanrai wails, setting down her pack to rifle through it as well. Not to pull out clothes, as the others have that well in hand, but to check on her supplies. "Alright, yes, I still have some things... I wouldn't want to risk getting stuck in there, but a few hours...? Surely! Who else is up for it? We can't let this chance slip through our fingers."

 

Chanterelle looks at Sarnai. "Forgive me, I misspoke. The portal will close when the moon is not in the sky, but it remains active for days. Till the next new moon, I believe, though it is not easy to tell inside that prison." She looks downcast. "If you remain past the dawn, you will have to wait for moonrise again. But you will not be trapped for long."

 

"Could anybody enter the prison through the other door?" asks Lyriae. "You said that it led into the Maze, right? And now that the door's open, could the Medusa get in?" She pauses and looks at the canvas, empty except for Alabaster and the broken chains. "Shit, and the fucking painting's ruined. I mean," she flushes and looks sideways at Chanterelle, "I'm glad you escaped and all, it's just. We can't sell it anymore."

 

"She does not often leave her sanctum. But there are... other things at large in the Maze, of late. I suspect this is not the only crack in its walls." Chanterelle clasps the cloak around her more tightly. "You could sell what you find there for an emperor's ransom, if you avoid her notice."

 

"Since this is a magical artifact, we probably don't want to fence it until we've at least studied it more. Besides, I know a few researchers at the university who'd spend every copper of their grant money for a chance to study something like this. Not that that's all that much if it's just one grant, but I can probably talk a few of them into working together for this." Liron smiled. "I'd actually like to see what that old professor we had would say about this. Wouldn't you, Sarnai?"

 

"I would too," Sarnai admitted, sighing, "but we can't openly connect our names with the False... Chanterelle..." She trails off, stares at the painting, and her face lights up. "Wait. Nobody would believe it is the stolen painting anymore, not with her missing from it! We could say this is a knock-off! It's entirely plausible!"

 

"It's a pretty boring knockoff," says Lyriae drily. "Red Room with Door, very exciting." She pauses. "Although we could put something in there to make it look more interesting? What kinda shit do they put in paintings, flowers? Bowls of fruit? But yeah, Sarnai, good idea. It just won't be worth as much."

 

"If we went in with Chanterelle and the painting, and explained what the painting does, wouldn't they end up thinking this might be it?" It didn't seem like there'd still be trouble though, after all they did save a woman and this is proof that this painting had a naked slave in it for many years. Too many to count properly, the sort of many that probably leads to one of those metal-rods-with-wood-beads-things getting clicked around and people yelling numbers. "I mean, we can play it off as 'we saved a lady' so maybe we won't get in trouble for taking the painting in the first place."

"Still, if we take it to the college, will they let us still go in to get the treasures that are deeper inside?" That was her bigger priority, to be honest. Colleges were pretty rich-y, but buying people requires a lot of money, and living free requires a lot of money, and whatever a college would give split between five- well six, it'd be unfair to deny Chanterelle money, she didn't even have pants- would not be enough.

 

"I was thinking we'd wait a bit before taking this to the university, and start the research here. Call it a control test, to get a baseline for future research." Liron pulled out her pen and notes. "I'll be taking notes the entire time, so there will be documentation of our procedures and methods."

 

"Control... Test?" Almost all of this was going over Stella's head, to be honest. She could understand a college and where smart people go to smart, but the actual methods of that just didn't make much sense. "What kind of test would be a control? Like throwing things at a normal painting versus the Fake Empty Room With A Door?"

 

"Actually, yes, probably. At least, if we didn't already know this painting was a portal to a pocket dimension, that's probably where some research would start. Though we probably wouldn't be throwing things so much as doing the magical equivalent of poking at a bunch of paintings with a stick." Liron could go on all night about hypothetical research scenarios, and had on more than one occasion.

 

"Huh. College is... Not as confusing as I thought." So, throw things at paintings is a completely normal control test? And magically hitting things with magic-sticks, or whatever the actual equivalent was? Actually, college sounds kind of fun, if it was all about beating up paintings instead of metal-and-bead-pegboard-nonsense. Stella scratched her chin thoughtfully, "Can we start things soon on that? Like something that can keep it open, so we can get in and out even when it's past the three good moon days?"

 

"That's a really good question. I'd have to fiddle with it for a bit, which should probably be done while the portal is still open, but I'm more than willing to try, if everyone else doesn't mind waiting."

((@The Frood Abides how should I proceed? unless someone else wants to interrupt and stop me from doing something that could end up either being really helpful or backfiring catastrophically))

 

"Softly," Chanterelle says. "Understanding can only help you, but... if you were to succeed in altering the magic, it might alert the Medusa or her servants. An unlocked door draws less attention than a hole in the wall. Not to mention that meddling might close it prematurely."

 

"Oh, no. Not before we take a look in there!" Sarnai approaches the painting, shaking her head at all of them. "I'm going in at least once before we risk messing with the spell. What if it's fragile in some way from its age? Push it the wrong way, and you might sever the way in altogether!!"

She drums her fingers on her legs, looking around. "Come on, don't you want to take a peek before doing anything terribly responsible?"

 

"That's the thing- I'm actually not entirely sure messing with the spell is the responsible thing to do. I want to, don't get me wrong. I really want to see how it works and if I can tweak things a bit in our favor. But I think we need more information first, and Chantrelle has graciously given us leads to that information." Liron nods in Chantrelle's direction, and winks at Lyriae, happy and amused to play wingman when they can, but not necessarily good at it. "All in all, we have a few days before the portal closes for a few weeks. That should give us time to get more information before we have to decide."

 

Alabaster has finished poking around the barren room and is itching slowly towards the door.

"Well what are we waiting for then?"

 

Lyriae blinks at Alabaster. "They're crazy," she says to no one in particular. "I'm adventuring with crazy people. Gods help me. Um," she addresses the dragonborn, "some idea of what's behind that door? I don't know, a fucking plan? Basic preparations for going into the maze full of monsters, even?"

 

"Alabaster, is there anything here you need me to bring you from this side of the portal?" Liron asked. Then they turned to Lyriae. "We have ink and paper for taking notes. The only other thing I could possibly need to study this is a lab full of supplies, and we've agreed that that will have to wait. How else do you suggest we prepare?"